Me Again...Fears of Disqualification

The big things are, don't draft during the bike portion of the race, put your helmet on before you even touch your bike in transition, don't cross over the yellow lines in the road and don't liter. Those are the ones I am always aware of during the race. I am sure others.

There are several ways to get disqualified, most are easy to avoid.

1st- Swim the correct course and follow all the bouys, make sure you do the full swim.

2nd- On the bike seems to be the biggest offenders...  You must stay back at least 3 or 4 (depending on the race) bike lengths, Drafting is illegal !  To pass another bike you must make your approach and get your front wheel ahead of the other bike within 15 seconds. If you get passed then you must drop back 3 or 4 lengths before attempting to pass again. Also no using cars/trucks to draft off of either. Always ride to the far right of the roadside and always pass on the left.

3rd-Run the full course, no shortcuts....

4th-always wear or display your race number.

other than these major items most is just common sense.  Have good sportsmanship and just use common sense for almost everything else.

You can read through the full set of rules at USAT.org

Good luck.
Mark

Edited by nfd31 2009-07-23 2:04 PM

Thanks guys.  I am feeling alittle better.  So, how hard is it to not draft when there are 100s of people competing.  Aren't there bound to be some jam ups when there is a narrow course.  Do you just have to suck it up and lag behind if you are worried?  I know I know.. I am over analyzing, but I have never biked in a race before and don't want to psyche myself out.

Remember, drafting, even if by accident, usually won't get you DQ'd unless they catch you like 3 times.  It will incur a time penalty.  I am not encouraging it, just saying that mistakes get made and after they card you once you probably won't do it again.  You have to do some pretty outrageous stuff to get completely DQ'd.